Back
State of Unreal 2025 - Highlights for Fortnite Creators
The Fortnite Team
At this year’s State of Unreal keynote — hosted at Unreal Fest for the first time ever — we revealed new tools, demos, IP announcements, and product releases for the Fortnite creator community. Let’s dive in!
We’re taking what we learned from Darth Vader and sharing the underlying technology with the creator community.
Later this year we’ll give creators the tools to build their own engaging AI-powered NPCs in UEFN. As demonstrated onstage at the State of Unreal, creators will be able to use the new Persona Device to create characters with personalities that players can talk to. You can select the type of voice and delivery you want for your NPC, as well as their characteristics. And we are taking it a step further so creators can not only drive NPC behavior and dialog, but also drive the core game itself, bringing new and dynamic player experiences to Fortnite.
Squid Game
Prepare for puzzles, survival, social play, deception, and betrayal. Squid Game comes to UEFN on June 27 timed to the series finale, and creators will be able to build their own twist on the world’s most intense playground. The ability to publish will follow later this summer.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Players loved the bending gameplay in Fortnite Battle Royale, so we’re bringing those tools directly to you. Prepare to warp reality when Avatar: The Last Airbender arrives in UEFN next year!
Thanks for reading. Looking for all the news from the keynote? Check out the full Unreal Engine blog post!
New AI Tools to Power NPC Interactions
During the latest Season of Fortnite Battle Royale (a.k.a. GALACTIC BATTLE), we introduced a Darth Vader NPC that uses conversational AI to respond when players speak to him.We’re taking what we learned from Darth Vader and sharing the underlying technology with the creator community.
Later this year we’ll give creators the tools to build their own engaging AI-powered NPCs in UEFN. As demonstrated onstage at the State of Unreal, creators will be able to use the new Persona Device to create characters with personalities that players can talk to. You can select the type of voice and delivery you want for your NPC, as well as their characteristics. And we are taking it a step further so creators can not only drive NPC behavior and dialog, but also drive the core game itself, bringing new and dynamic player experiences to Fortnite.
Meet the new Epic Developer Assistant
The new Epic Developer Assistant is an AI tool currently in beta that will improve creators’ productivity. Available now on the Epic Developer Community, this AI-powered assistant will help you write Verse code for your UEFN projects. It also provides answers, workflow guidance, and code snippets to help you overcome challenges and build faster. Try it out now!Fresh IP coming to UEFN
You’ve built some amazing experiences set in the worlds of the IPs available to creators today, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Walking Dead Universe. We’ve got even more exciting IPs coming to UEFN, plus a huge update to LEGO® creator tools!Squid Game
Prepare for puzzles, survival, social play, deception, and betrayal. Squid Game comes to UEFN on June 27 timed to the series finale, and creators will be able to build their own twist on the world’s most intense playground. The ability to publish will follow later this summer.
Players loved the bending gameplay in Fortnite Battle Royale, so we’re bringing those tools directly to you. Prepare to warp reality when Avatar: The Last Airbender arrives in UEFN next year!
Star Wars
Fortnite: GALACTIC Battle may be coming to a close — but that doesn’t mean the Star Wars fun in Fortnite has to end. Take players to a galaxy far, far away using official Star Wars features, templates, and assets when they land in UEFN. More to come soon!
Fortnite: GALACTIC Battle may be coming to a close — but that doesn’t mean the Star Wars fun in Fortnite has to end. Take players to a galaxy far, far away using official Star Wars features, templates, and assets when they land in UEFN. More to come soon!
LEGO Brick-by-Brick Building and Bloom Tycoon
The single most requested LEGO feature is coming to UEFN on June 17: brick-by-brick building! There’s also the new LEGO Bloom Tycoon template, enabling you to build the garden of your dreams and demonstrating tycoon-style gameplay. Find out more.
The single most requested LEGO feature is coming to UEFN on June 17: brick-by-brick building! There’s also the new LEGO Bloom Tycoon template, enabling you to build the garden of your dreams and demonstrating tycoon-style gameplay. Find out more.
Powerful New Features in UEFN
We’re shipping new UEFN features that will open up more creative options for crafting Fortnite experiences.
Scene Graph Beta
Scene Graph’s Beta release is coming June 7. This game-changing feature provides a new way to structure your project’s content in UEFN, so you can rapidly construct rich, detailed environments by organizing entities into a clear, hierarchical view. Repeating elements can be converted into Prefabs, simplifying management and enabling easy variation.
At runtime, your Verse code can traverse this same hierarchy to change anything. That means in many cases, you can now opt to use Verse in place of the Fortnite devices for interactions and gameplay, paving the way for more immersive Fortnite experiences and creating new possibilities for platformers, Metroidvanias, deathruns, and other genres involving complex interactions.
It also provides the basis for future features like custom ranged weapons and items, which will unlock survival and RPG-style gameplay and expand the support for even more genres. Check out the roadmap to see what else is on the way this year.
At runtime, your Verse code can traverse this same hierarchy to change anything. That means in many cases, you can now opt to use Verse in place of the Fortnite devices for interactions and gameplay, paving the way for more immersive Fortnite experiences and creating new possibilities for platformers, Metroidvanias, deathruns, and other genres involving complex interactions.
It also provides the basis for future features like custom ranged weapons and items, which will unlock survival and RPG-style gameplay and expand the support for even more genres. Check out the roadmap to see what else is on the way this year.
General Physics
The Beta version of General Physics will be released in Q3 this year, enabling you to publish Fortnite islands built with this feature. If you haven’t explored it yet, get started now with the Experimental version to unlock emergent, physics-driven gameplay for genres like sports games and sophisticated puzzle games.
More Insights for Creators
Starting June 9, the recently-released Fortnite Data API will expand its dataset to include engagement and retention metrics for creator-made islands, helping you make data-driven decisions as you build, launch, and grow your games.
We’re also making the behind-the-scenes of Discover more transparent, with new documentation that shines a light on how island discovery works, and which metrics impact visibility and success.
We’re also making the behind-the-scenes of Discover more transparent, with new documentation that shines a light on how island discovery works, and which metrics impact visibility and success.
UEFN Sessions at Unreal Fest Orlando
The State of Unreal may be over, but the UEFN content keeps coming. Tune into our YouTube channel and watch these livestreamed UEFN sessions over the coming days:
Finding Success in Discover | 11:30 AM ET, June 3
Learn what's new in Discover and how we think about identifying and supporting successful games in the ecosystem.
Physics Gameplay in UEFN | 9 AM ET, June 4
Find out how to build dynamic, physics-driven gameplay experiences in Fortnite that will captivate your players. Learn how physics enhances player interactions, providing consistent and satisfying responses to every action.
New Techniques for Building UI in UEFN | 11:45 AM ET, June 4
In 2025, UEFN is bringing a host of new capabilities to empower Fortnite creators to make higher quality and more responsive user interfaces than ever before. This session demonstrates how to use these new tools to design UI widgets in Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG), and connect them to custom gameplay data generated by Verse.
Powering Up Your Project with Scene Graph and Verse | 4:45 PM ET, June 4
Learn how to apply game design principles with Scene Graph and Verse to build an obstacle course game. Starting from scratch, attendees learn how to create a simple platform Prefab for a character to jump on, add custom Verse components to get the platforms moving, and quickly iterate to build obstacles that scale, spin, slide, and explode!
Collabs, Commissions, and Creating: Tom Jank’s UEFN Survival Guide | 2 PM ET, June 5
Tom Jank covers:
- The pros and cons of each aspect of solo developer work in the UEFN ecosystem.
- What it's like to work with brands, content creators, and large studios as a freelancer.
- Tips on branding your own original work and identity.
Once Unreal Fest Orlando is over, we’ll have plenty of recordings of these sessions available to watch on demand.
Thanks for reading. Looking for all the news from the keynote? Check out the full Unreal Engine blog post!